Social networking in Latin America and Africa is set to increase ten-fold to 527 million users by 2015, according to research by Frost & Sullivan and Colibria. Within six years, the research company estimates the combined market will be worth almost $2.4 billion, with growth being driven by increased availability of the mobile internet.

In Africa, there are ten times more mobiles than landlines. Similarly, in South America, 80% of the population have a mobile phone compared to just 25% with regular fixed internet access.

Not surprisingly, mobile is the channel of choice for many social networks to get more customers. On that note, Colibria’s CEO Keith Gibson said: “The specific conditions in these markets have led to an increased need for solutions that make Mobilised Social Networking affordable and easy to implement. This is why we developed the Social Center – to provide operators with a reliable and cost-effective solution that provides all of their subscribers with access to social networks. With the growing consumer interest in social networks, it is important for operators to be able to deliver these services on top of the basic offerings to attract new customers.”

At the end, Colibria talks about its Social Center, which is presented in more details at their website.

[Via: CellularNews]

As we near the end of the month, it is time to read the latest “State of the Mobile Web” from Opera. Thanks to Opera Mini’s server-client architecture, the Opera folks in Norway have the ability to provide detailed analytics and insight as to what is popular in various parts of the world. This month’s episode focuses on Latin America, but let us focus on the global statistics:

• Opera saw double digit growth in unique users, pages viewed and data consumed
• There are now 39.6 million Opera Mini users, 11.3% more than September 2009, and 155% more compared to October 2008
• Those users viewed 17.2 billion websites, up 14.8% compared to last month, and up 238% compared to October 2008
• Opera’s server pumped out 250.8 TB, 16% more than last month, and 233% more than October 2008
• The top 10 countries for Opera Mini usage are (in order): Russia, Indonesia, India, China, Ukraine, South Africa, United States, United Kingdom, Poland and Vietnam

We’re still waiting for Opera Mini 5 to get out of beta. It’s by far one of the best browsers on the market, and it’s my browser of choice on my Nokia (NYSE: NOK) E71. That’s right, even with Opera 10 Mobile available for Symbian devices, I still prefer the J2ME Opera Mini 5 beta. Read my review to find out why I love it so much. Hint: SPEED.

Like many (including my bud Ronen over at BerryReview), I could have sworn the New York Times already had a BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) App available for download. Guess I was wrong. The app I must have been thinking about was/is for the iPhone (I have it installed on my iPhone), and it’s a pretty darn good news app. All of the Times offerings to this point have been desktop shortcuts.

If the iPhone edition is any indicator, the BlackBerry edition should be solid for anyone wanting to get their fill of the Times. Articles are downloaded to your Berry’s memory for offline viewing, which is kind of handy. Especially if you find yourself in a ‘dead zone’ with no network coverage. Content is also optimized for your BlackBerry’s screen resolution, for optimal viewing and ease of use.

To check it out, head on over to http://www.nytimes.com/bbapp from your BlackBerry, or read more from your desktop here. The New York Times BlackBerry App is available for the Tour, Storm, Bold and Curve 8900.

Note: You can check out the New York Times for iPhone App right here (iTunes link).

[Via: EditorandPublisher]

Just a late night quickie here for the BlackBerry Storm 9520 users. OS 5.0.0.341 has leaked and is available right here for download. Keep in mind this is a very unofficial release, so if you do decide to download and install, do so at your own risk. Backup your device and take all necessary precautions before you proceed. Or not.

As always if you give this a whirl, be sure to let us know if you notice any major improvements. I’ll be here awaiting your comments.

Happy OS updating!

[Via: CB]

Earlier this month you may recall the TELUS LG IQ making a cameo in a Best Buy mobile ad. The device that was once a bit of a mystery is starting to come out into the light, today in the form of a few spy shots.

The IQ features a 3.2″ touchscreen, 5.0MP camera with video, and a full and somewhat luxurious slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The IQ will be TELUS (NYSE: TU)’ first device to offer Windows Mobile 6.5… I can’t imagine there being much (if any) demand for Win-Mo, but good on TELUS for mixing it up a bit here.

I’m by no means a Windows Mobile fan, but I’d sure like to get my hands on this bad boy… I’ll see what I can do…

[Via: TheMobileNinjas]

Canadian banking giant Scotiabank has announced that they’ll move forward with mobile banking services in the spring of next year. With almost 13 million customers worldwide, me thinks a lot of folks are going to love the new features afforded to them. The new app will provide personal and small business customers with access to accounts from their mobile device, and much more.

Mike Henry, Senior Vice-President of Sales & Service at Scotiabank commented on the announcement:

“With more than 22 million cell phone subscribers in Canada, wireless phones are among the fastest growing consumer products in history Canadians rely on the convenience of mobile devices to help them manage their busy lifestyles, and having the ability to do their banking from their mobile devices will simplify their lives that much more.

The launch of mobile banking for Scotiabank customers next spring further demonstrates our commitment to offering innovative, convenient and secure banking solutions for our customers”

No details have been made available as to an exact launch date… But I’ll keep an eye on this one and provide updates on any developments as they happen.

[Via: Newswire]

Hey, hey, HEY! Just a little more T-Mobile (NYSE: DT) 3G expansion love to tell you about at this ungodly early hour in the morning (at least it’s very early over here ) I just happened to notice that Montgomery Alabama, Topeka Kansas, and Clarksville Tennessee have been added to the 3G launch list over at the T-Mobile forums.

Congratulations to all of the T-Mobile customers in the area. Enjoy the new 3G speeds, ya hear?

Sometimes size doesn’t matter. Most other times, though, size really counts. Take smartphones, for example. We’re always looking for a thin waistline (we’re a superficial bunch), big helpings of processor power, and a huge touchscreen. It’s all about size. We would have never thought a Windows Mobile device would be the first smartphone to completely meet all those criteria. The HTC HD2 Windows Phone packs in a 1Ghz Snapdragon processor and a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen into a package about as thick as a No. 2 yellow pencil. It’s about as good as it gets for Windows Mobile. Heck, the HD2 massive touchscreen, powerful processor and impressive 5-megapixel camera make the handset one of the best phones of the year.

What? A Windows Mobile phone that’s actually worthy of competing at the same level as the iPhone and Android phones like the Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Droid? You bet your ass. Here’s the thing: HTC does a great job of covering up the Windows Mobile interface with its own TouchFLO 3D UI (infused with HTC’s “Sense” design philosophy, of course). So, the HD2 might be a Windows Phone, but with the TF3D interface in place, it’s easy to forgive the HD2’s WinMo roots.

Add in a dash of 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen goodness, sprinkle on a 5-megapixel camera with dual-LED flash, and add a pinch of GPS, 3G data, WiFi and digital compass, 3.5mm headphone jack, and a microSD card slot, and the HD2’s recipe is sure to please even the staunchest Windows Mobile haters. The barely-there bezel surrounding the touchscreen really highlights the ginormous display – it dominates the handset.

Some say the display is too big, which makes the handset too big, but we have to disagree. The HD2 is just thin enough to pull off the bigscreen look without feeling bloated or unwieldy. It feels a little wide in the hand, but nothing we couldn’t get used to. And, when you’re watching a music video or browsing the web, any complaints about the HD2’s size immediately vaporize into the ether.

We’ll leave the Windows Mobile commentary for a full review, but for now, enjoy the HTC HD2 hands-on video and photo gallery!

Touch DJ by Amidio Inc is apparently now for sale, and is claiming to be the first and only real MP3 DJ mixing app available for the iPhone. It offers realtime independent manipulation of 2 MP3/M4A files, including scratching, looping, positioning, equalization, effects and and pitching.

Traditionally iPhone and iPod Touch have only one stereo audio output which broadens the possibility of using them as a DJ device. Touch DJ overcomes this limitation by offering innovative and unique way of deejaying which doesn’t require additional headphones for prelistening to the tracks.

The technology is called “visual mixing” and it places the graphic display of the track waveforms next to each other. The low-bass (kick) parts are detected and rendered in different color compared to the rest sonic frequencies, making beatmatching as easy as adjusting the tracks position and pitch so that the kick parts become visually matched. Simple, but devastatingly effective!

As a former DJ myself, I can say there is sound logic here, and I can’t wait to get my paws on it and review it! In the meantime you can find it on the Apple Store by searching for Touch DJ, and then paying £11.99 to download it.

Also, if this App floats your boat immediately on reading the story, then click below to watch the video:

Uh-oh. This doesn’t bode well for Sony Ericsson (NYSE: SNE)….

The SE Satio, purported to be a big-hitter in the touchscreen/smartphone/cameraphone space, has been pulled from sale by Carphone Warehouse, and Phones4U in the UK. Given they are (arguably) the two biggest independent high street chains for Mobile devices, that’s a MAJOR problem for the embattled handset maker.

The vague, and frankly somewhat annoying, explanation of “software issues” is apparently to blame – something that many of us, as smartphone owners, will have experienced at one time or another. In actual fact, what they are referring to is a handset that most likely either crashes or locks when certain actions (e.g. opening an app) are performed on it.

However, usually for handsets to get pulled, these software issues have to be consistently bad, and repeatable – along the scale of say, a handset that persistently restarts when you try and make a call on it (yes, that’s happened before on other devices I’ve tried). So we can assume that for affected handsets, there’s a bug that ain’t going away, and that is going to frustrate users a great deal.

Interestingly, as well being for sale in independent retail channels, the device also got ranged with Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), 3, and Orange – none of whom are apparently considering pulling the Satio. Vodafones view is that it has an Operator-variant of the device which has been tested extensively, and therefore doesn’t have the same issues. Anecdotally, the Satio that I had, which was on the 3 network, didn’t have any issues either – actually, it was very good!

Apparently SE is coming with a software update that is going to fix the issue within the next few days.

[Via: Mobiletoday.co.uk]